Do you love learning?
Are you a life long learner?
Are you part of the 90% who learn because you have to?
Or are you the 10% that learn because you want to?
Only 10% of the world’s population are Activated Life Long Learners. This means that the Activated Life Long Learners are proactive with their personal, emotional, spiritual and professional development.
These people are the high performing, self-managing types. They invest in themselves and love to learn. They light up at being positive with their learning; they are switched on with what is happening to them and the world. Most of all they are curious; they bring back their child like curiosity.
The rest of the world’s adult population are called Life Long Learners, the 90%. These people are reactive with their development. They will only upgrade, or update their skills and mindset when they have been retrenched, sacked or missed out on a promotion. They only go to training or coaching if the organisation pays for it. They would never pay for their own personal or professional development, they think it is someone else’s responsibility to train them. They do not understand that the benefit is to them for a lifetime.
Which one are you? Are you one of the 90% that roll your eyes at the sparkly eyed people (and that is about you not them) in a meeting, at a party, at a networking event, or even within your family?
The 10% have hope, they are optimistic, they have a go, give it a crack, they have balance – the 90% don’t.
We were all subjected to boring classes throughout our life. Activated Life Long Learners simply did not use that as an excuse to not find out how learning could be fun, interesting, amazing, incredible, dynamic, life changing, inspiring and self perpetuating, driving you on to the next level of development.
Imagine what you may be capable of and what you could achieve if you had experienced great training events from the beginning. The reason most people are not proactive, is because they have not had a good learning experience and live without a love of learning.
There is good news if you have had the realisation that you have been reactive to your personal or business development. You can shift quite easily into being an activated life long learner by taking responsibility for your personal life, your career, your spirituality and being curious about your true capability.
I am now an Activated Life Long Learner. I love to learn, I am happiest learning new things or working on how to improve myself or having more skills.
In my darkest times, I had stopped learning and developing, I just turned up each day, I was not open to any opportunities. I was sitting on the sidelines of life and not participating even though in my younger years I was a voracious learner. I had turned myself into one of the 90% which was part of the reason I was extremely unhappy.
Once I identified this, I took responsibility for bringing learning, personal development and resources into my life, so I had a clear pathway for growth. I was excited to see it unfold, to see what turned up and create momentum to clear away the darkness.
I learnt that I had to take a step, then another, then another to start my journey without necessarily seeing how far the path was. I committed to myself to trust in the process and add what was missing in my life - inspiration; driving force; fun; energy; happiness; balance.
So instead of sitting on the sidelines I became engaged in life, I reignited my passion of being an Activated Life Long Learner.
I found ways to become an Activated Life Long Learner. Here are some examples to start you on your proactive learning journey:
Sign up for a workshop in personal development
Be interested with what others are doing to live happily
Read personal development books
Listen to podcasts
Do an online course
Go on an educational cruise
Invest in learning
Upgrade your work skills
Watch documentaries
Go to a retreat to learn about yourself
Attend an event to learn a new skill
Be curious and ask better questions
Always be open to how you can learn more
When I found out my Life Purpose – to live, to learn, to love, to grow – I realised that it is a must for me to continue to learn, it fills me up, it makes me feel worthy, it encourages me do things that are outside the comfort zone, that are fun, that are adventurous and I feel strong, sure of myself and happy.
My learning is about myself, my skills as a coach and mentor, my life experiences, my relationships, nature and the list goes on. I find I learn from every person I meet, every mistake I make is not seen as a mistake but a learning opportunity.
I have been on a personal development journey to address what held me back now I am learning how to live the life I want. This learning occurs every day for me and I love it.
From learning I grow. I grow as a person, a woman, an adventurer, a sparkly-eyed child, a speaker, a mentor, a loving partner, a nurturing mother and nana.
I do not make the slip-up of being an information gatherer. I used to make this mistake. I would read lots so I knew about lots of things but never put them into practice. It would be like buying this book, agreeing with everything I have said, then closing it up and moving on to the next book without implementing anything. This is a common pattern for people. They feel like they can talk on a subject because they have read about it, but they have not lived it.
I began doing courses and reading personal development and business books and I would not close them up and put them away until I identified at least one thing I could take away, put into action and give a go.
Now I get results. I get the results I want or I learn from the results that I do not get. At least I am giving it a go and being activated in my learning and not being stuck anymore.
In Japan, Kaizen means constant and never-ending improvement. I became aware of it as a Project Manager in my government job when I was learning a particular type of improvement process. Now I use it for my life. I use it constantly so I change course easily, be okay when chaos or when challenges enter my life and to be consistently expanding my skills.
Chuck Gallozzi says:
“We have an innate desire to endlessly learn, grow, and develop. We want to become more than what we already are. Once we yield to this inclination for continuous and never-ending improvement, we lead a life of endless accomplishments and satisfaction”.
So, if we are to achieve and be satisfied with life we need to continually improve and learn to be successful. Like technology is constantly changing and improving, we as humans need to be constantly changing and improving to make our lives better and to thrive rather than just survive.
I have committed to learning and constantly improving myself. Even though I have come a long way from the dark times I still see there is a way forward and this excites me. I love to think ‘wow how can I get better at that’, or ‘what can I do today to improve myself or help my clients or get my message out’.
When you commit to growing by constant and never-ending improvement your feelings of self-esteem and self-confidence rise.
Imagine living a life where you are motivated by learning new things, trying out new adventures, seeing the possibilities that life has to hold all because you are committed to self-improvement.
Reflection is also key to learning. It is learning from experience in that you think consciously about what happened, what you did or what is going on in your life. This can develop insights so you can appreciate the situation and if necessary do things differently next time.
When you refine this skill you actually learn more than you would than casually thinking about something and moving on. You will become more emotionally intelligent and develop creative thinking skills.
Use the senses when learning:
Watch and Read (Visual)
Ask and Talk (Auditory)
Feel (Kinaesthetic)
Think (Auditory Digital)
Incorporate reflective thinking into your life. Ask things like: How did that make me feel; What was my behaviour like; Could I have done things differently?
When you are reflecting, you are taking charge of your learning which means you are in the 10%, you are becoming self-aware to discover more about yourself and others and can help better understand a concept, your desires and be more successful.
Once you begin learning about yourself, begin to learn about others. When you connect more with yourself and others by learning why we behave differently, what floats someone’s boat, better ways to communicate, how to parent, how to add adventure and fun, whatever it is for you, your life has deeper meaning.